The Big Shot's Runaway Wife

Lu Jiancheng's bloodshot eyes locked on his father. In a hoarse voice, he repeated himself, word by word.

"I said I don't want the university place anymore. I want to give it to Bai Rui."

"You bastard!" Father Lu snatched up the broom in the corner and swung it hard.

The handle struck flesh with a dull thud. Lu Jiancheng did not dodge; he took the blow head-on.

"I threw away my pride to get that place for you, and you're giving it away?" Father Lu roared. "Lu Jiancheng, how the hell can you be so generous? You're a lovesick fool, but do you know... do you know your sister jumped into the river today over that place?"

"What!" Lu Jiancheng jolted. He stared in disbelief at his pale-faced sister, who was leaning against her chair. "When did that happen? Nobody... nobody told me!"

Under her brother's shocked, guilt-ridden gaze, Lu Tinglan

had no idea she had become the eye of the storm. Her bright eyes flicked from one person to another. The scene felt damnably familiar.

Something surfaced in her mind. Lu Tinglan stared at her second brother, and her pupils widened in shock.

Oh my God. It couldn't really be what I think, could it?

The good news: Lu Tinglan had entered a book, becoming the cherished youngest daughter of the village chief of Lu Family Village, raised with every imaginable indulgence.

The bad news: her second brother was a cannon-fodder prop in that novel, there to hand the heroine a golden finger with his whole heart and soul before sacrificing himself too.

And as the cannon-fodder supporting character's family, none of the Lu Family had met a good end. Lu Tinglan dug her own ending out of the depths of her memory.

After falling into the river, Lu Tinglan had waited a long time before anyone rescued her. Her health suffered from then on, and she came to hate her parents. Later, someone tricked her into going south for work, only for her to be abducted on the way and taken to a mountain village as an old bachelor's wife. She bore litter after litter of children and finally died in a pigsty.

Lu Tinglan: "...!!!"

That ending was terrifying. Every word of it triggered her PTSD.

When she had read the book, she had never imagined she would become family to this love-addled cannon fodder. Recalling her second brother's brain-dead decisions in the original story, Lu Tinglan wanted to punch him all the way back into a fertilized egg.

The plot of The Seventies: The Big Shot's Runaway Wife went like this: the male supporting character chased the heroine, the heroine chased the hero, and all that chasing somehow produced a happy ending. As the heroine's devoted lapdog, Lu Jiancheng spent the whole story serving the main couple.

By this point, the hero had already found a chance to return to the city. The heroine, Bai Rui, had been abandoned in a desolate mountain village, secretly carrying a child in her belly.

An unmarried pregnancy was no small matter in this era. With nowhere else to turn, Bai Rui sought out Lu Jiancheng, the devoted admirer who had long been hopelessly in love with her, to take responsibility.

Lu Jiancheng lived up to his role as the novel's devoted lapdog. For his goddess, he not only gave up the worker-peasant-soldier university place his father had fought so hard to secure, but also quit his job and stayed by the heroine's side as a full-time dad.

But cannon fodder was cannon fodder.

While Bai Rui was at university, she secretly got back in touch with the hero, and the adulterous pair took up together again. Once Bai Rui had wrung the last drop of usefulness out of Lu Jiancheng, she kicked him aside. After their divorce, he refused to give up and pestered her several more times. Bai Rui decided to finish the job: one letter of accusation sent him to prison.

As a reader with a strong sense of justice, Lu Tinglan could not stomach a plot that twisted right and wrong so badly. She complained inwardly:

The author must have hated the Lu Family to write endings like that for all of them!

At the sudden voice, Lu Jiancheng looked up in astonishment from where he knelt. It had come from his youngest sister—Lu Tinglan.

Lu Tinglan sat in the chair farthest from the door, wrapped in a thick padded coat. Sensitive to the cold, she held a cup of steaming tea. Mist curled around her pretty features, softening them into something even more delicate. He had spent so much time circling Bai Rui lately that Lu Jiancheng only now realized his little sister had quietly grown up.

Remembering his father's words, Lu Jiancheng felt a surge of guilt. He looked at his sister apologetically. "I didn't know she'd fallen into the river. But Bai Rui really needs that university place. Dad, Mom, I know I'm being selfish, but I'm willing to make it up to her."

Lu Jiancheng gritted his teeth and made up his mind. "In a couple of days, I'll sell my job and give my little sister all the money, along with everything I've saved over the years. I've wronged her as her second brother."

Father Lu was so furious that smoke might as well have poured from all seven of his orifices. He pointed at Lu Jiancheng, unable to speak for a long moment.

"You bastard!" Mother Lu's eyes reddened with anger, and she launched straight into a tirade. For that woman, he was throwing away his job and his chance at university. She wished she had never given birth to this son.

I've always said love-addled fools shouldn't be allowed at the table. That's a rule handed down by our ancestors.

Dad, Mom, stop trying to talk him out of it. My second brother won't just give up everything for her. He'll run over and play nursemaid to that pair of adulterers, too.

His sister's voice rang out again. This time, Lu Jiancheng never took his eyes off her face. Her mouth clearly had not moved. Could he be hearing her thoughts?

Lu Jiancheng's expression darkened. He had done everything he could for his sister, yet this was how Lu Tinglan talked about him in her head? Anger flared, and he turned a cold face toward her.

"Lu Tinglan." It was rare for Lu Jiancheng to use her full name. "This has nothing to do with you. Go back to your room!"

Lu Tinglan, who had been wholly absorbed in watching the drama unfold, looked up blankly. What was going on? Why had he suddenly turned on her?

Hmph. All you can do is pick on someone weaker than you!

Lu Jiancheng's face grew darker. Lu Tinglan pursed her lips and slowly shuffled away, unwilling, while grumbling to herself.

What's his problem? When you're playing the cuckold and taking responsibility for someone else's child, why can't you act as tough as you do with me?

What on earth was she talking about?

His sister's thoughts were driving Lu Jiancheng to the brink. He hurried to explain to his parents, "Dad, Mom, Bai Rui is a good girl. We're truly in love. You'll understand once you get to know her!"

A good girl—

Lu Tinglan stopped in her tracks. As it happened, she remembered this plot point vividly.

If she remembered correctly,

you don't mean the good girl crouching outside and eavesdropping through the wall, do you?

Eavesdropping!

Everyone in the room changed expression. Father Lu forgot his anger at his unfilial son and gave Lu Jiancheng a look. "Jiancheng, go see what's going on."

"Dad!" Lu Jiancheng flushed with anger. Even Wang the Scab from the village entrance would not stoop to eavesdropping outside someone's house, let alone Bai Rui. Lu Tinglan made up a few things in her head, and his father actually believed her!

Father Lu met his gaze firmly. Yes, he believed her.

"Go!" Father Lu urged.

Lu Jiancheng could almost have laughed at his muddleheaded father. He rose reluctantly, but after a few steps, he saw the bright side: if this proved Lu Tinglan was a liar, perhaps she would think twice before secretly slandering him again.

Less than a minute later, a woman's startled cry came from behind the house, followed by Lu Jiancheng's bewildered voice. "What are you doing here so late?"

Father Lu gave a loud snort from inside. His sarcastic voice carried outside. "Since she's here, invite her in. I wouldn't want anyone saying the Lu Family doesn't know how to treat a guest."

The village houses had walls made of packed mud, and sound carried through them easily. But among neighbors, no one would disgrace themselves by lurking outside another family's wall.

Bai Rui had truly opened their eyes!

A cold north wind swept past. After asking his question, Lu Jiancheng stood silent for a long while, leaving the air painfully awkward. Bai Rui had been standing out in the cold for ages, and now she could not help shivering.

She had hidden so quietly behind the house. How had they caught her in the act? Bai Rui ground her back teeth in mortification and anger. For now, though, what mattered was soothing the fool in front of her.

Bai Rui bit her lip. Her eyes reddened as she gave Lu Jiancheng a pitiful smile, then gently took his hand.

"Jiancheng," she said, "I believe your parents are reasonable people. This is our future. Let me face it with you, all right?"

Lu Jiancheng's gaze went hazy. This Bai Rui was the woman he knew and loved. That village woman he had just seen, sticking her backside out as she pressed her ear to the wall, must have been an illusion.

His gaze touched her belly. Her gentle words warmed him, and he hastily pushed down his doubts. Lu Jiancheng said nothing. He merely clasped Bai Rui's hand firmly and led her inside.

"What an honored guest," Mother Lu said with a cold laugh. No one in the room had a pleasant look to spare for the pair.

Now that Mother Lu had caught Bai Rui red-handed, she refused to let it go. "The Lu Family may not come from generations of scholars, but we've been honest people for generations. In all my years, I've never seen a grown girl sneak around listening outside someone's wall. Have you no shame?"

"If you dare get together with Bai Rui, I'll disown you. Lu Jiancheng, if you had ears and bothered to listen, you'd know the village never runs out of gossip about this woman. Let her through our door, and people will spit at our backs.

"And that university place—you two have certainly made your plans. Well, let me tell you: dream on! I'd give it to Wang the Scab at the east end of the village before I gave it to her. Both of you can put that idea out of your heads!"

Mother Lu was a master at arguing, undefeated throughout the village. She let loose to her heart's content. Bai Rui was still young and thin-skinned; shame flushed her face so red she could not raise her head.

His sweetheart stood on one side and his parents on the other. Lu Jiancheng was caught between them.

He dropped to his knees with a thud and knocked his forehead against the floor three times—bang, bang, bang—leaving a bloody mark.

Lu Jiancheng stared stubbornly at his parents, then dropped another bombshell. "Dad, Mom, Bai Rui is pregnant. I have to take responsibility."